Cuteness

Babies truly radiate cuteness; here's a picture with Grandpa Lee: and a picture of Lydia in what I like to call her "Orphan Annie" outfit...
Here's me and the baby!
Okay, so Lydia has always used her purple and pink pacifier because it was more bulb shaped and longer, so easier to grip. Well, I was at my brother Jimmy's house the other day and couldn't find the baby's pacifier, so I had to use the spare flat-shaped pacifier that I always keep in her diaper bag. And what do you know...she was all sucking on it as though she had been sucking it since day one. It's really cute because it lays pretty flat against her cheeks, so it looks like she's got a flower on her mouth. Here, see for yourself...

Shopaholics

Lydia and I have been shopping at the mall these last couple of days...what can I say, you've got to start them young. hee hee. Yesterday we went with Mike to Memorial City Mall and had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and today we went by ourselves to the same mall after having lunch with Grandpa. We paid White House Black Market a few visits because after all, it is one of Mommy's favorite stores. I was hoping that being out a little while would get Lydia really tired for her nap when we got home, but instead she was extremely restless. She would only sleep 10-15 minutes at a time and would wake up very upset. I guess it didn't help that her rowdy cousins were over for dinner either. Well, Lydia finally got some rest laying on top of me as I watched Dancing with the Stars. Speaking of which, it was a three way tie so it's going to be a close call. I personally think Mario needs to go because he's always been good and hasn't really "improved". Anyhow, so I learned my lesson and am only going to go out for a few hours at a time, so my little one can get some rest. This motherhood thing sure is an experience and I sure am loving it!

I got to talk to Trung this morning at 8:30 AM our time, 10:30 PM his time. Poor guy's luggage didn't get transfered, so he had to wear his traveling clothes to work. Well, at least he finally got it and is getting plenty of sleep, considering the lack of sleep with the baby. The good thing is, by the time he gets back, the baby should be sleeping until at least 4 PM and will soon be sleeping through the night. I can't wait for that, but especially for Trung to come home. He's only been gone for a couple days, but I miss him immensely. I think my hormones are still out of whack too. :P

Back in Houston

After being away from my parent's home in Houston for almost four years, I am back again in my old room, except this time with my baby girl. It has been awfully nice getting to hang out with my entire family everyday; we haven't been in the same city in a very long time.

Getting to this point was quite an adventure...let's begin with Saturday early afternoon. Trung and I were running a little behind schedule in driving off to Dallas for Jasmine's wedding when our neighbors, Jonathan and Grace, came over to watch Lydia before our Calvin picked her up to take her to Houston. We got to Richardson just in the nick of time and would have been late had we not changed our clothes in the parking lot of the church. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a blast at the reception, um, at least what I could remember...hee hee. Congratulations to our friends Jasmine and Trey!

So, we had a great time and ended up getting to the hotel and sleeping at 12:30 PM. Our wake-up call was at 5:15 AM because Trung's flight to China from DFW was at 8 AM Sunday. After dropping Trung off, I headed for Houston. I arrived at my parent's house at 10:30 AM with no caffeine, which was surprising because I thought I would need a venti coffee at Starbucks. I guess these last two months of staying up with the baby helped me out.

While Trung and I were trying to get some sleep in Dallas, where's what was going on in Houston:
When I got to Houston, my brother Mike made me some lunch and then I headed to bed. I didn't get much sleep since Lydia was restless, but we ended up sleeping at 9 PM that night. Lydia slept for the longest time ever...6 hours, but 7 hours if you include the occasional whimpering. She must have known that I was exhausted or something, she's such a great baby! :) Oh, so Lydia turned two months old yesterday and is 11 pounds and 24 inches tall. She had her two month old shots on Friday and did wonderful considering that she got four shots and and oral dose. Now I've got to train her these next couple weeks to sleep through the night. It's going to be hard, but someone's got to do it...it's probably a good thing that Trung is in China because he's a sucker for her cries. :P

Unemployment

Today I am officially unemployed. The head HR lady called me today and asked if I knew if I was returning to work or not. Though I was going to e-mail everyone later today or maybe even Friday (since I've got until the 18th to notify the company), I decided to go ahead and tell her that I was going to be a stay at home mom. She took it very well and asked that I still send something in writing. Well, I sent her and some other folks an e-mail and within the hour, my access to company e-mail was caput. So long...farewell!

After sending the e-mail, I was looking at Lydia and decided that I truly was glad to stay home with her. Only I can raise my child the way I want, ya know? Anyhow, here's a picture of my mom giving Lydia a bath this past weekend. Looks like Grandma is going to be bathing her during our Houston stay, which is totally fine with me :)Lydia really does love taking baths even though she's got a weird look on her face. Hmmm, maybe it's because Grandma made her hair all funky.

Breakthrough

This weekend we went to Houston so that Trung could get his business visa for his trip to China on Sunday. Yup, that's right, Trung is leaving us for two weeks to train his new team members...boo hoo hoo!! Nah, it's okay, Lydia and I will stay with my parents in Houston until he returns. We set up the webcam while we were in Houston, so that he doesn't miss seeing us too too much.

Lydia slept for more than five hours without waking up Sunday night for the very first time. She has been sleeping a consistent three to four hours, so Sunday was a breakthrough. Too bad I was up at 1 AM trying to tame my hives; they seem to flare up everytime I eat fish. So anyways, I always look at the clock when I feed her, so when I saw that the clock read 3:40 AM ( I put her down around 10:15 PM), I thought maybe my dad had not yet adjusted it for Daylight Savings. Well, when I looked at my cell phone, it also read the same. I knew this day would come when she would sleep longer, but some nights it seemed that it never would. Now, let's just hope that it stays consistent.

She smiles :)

This morning as I was feeding Lydia, I noticed that she was smiling at me as I was burping her. Up until this point, she smiled due to gas or as she was falling asleep; she never knew what she was doing until today. Every time I smiled at her, she would voluntarily smile back at me. YAY!!! Here's a close up...

This new discovery has almost helped me forget about the hives...almost.

Last night right before I went to bed, my face was a mess. My eyes were swollen and red and the rest of my face was blotchy. Trung was helping me put Benedryl gel on the hives, which believe it or not, covered about 75% of my body. Once again, if not for the Benedryl, I don't think I would have been able to sleep from not only the itch, but also the burn. Every time I got up to feed the baby, I could tell that the hives were gradually going away. When I finally woke up for the day, the hives from my midsection and arms had pretty much cleared, which left my legs and face. Right now I am presentable, though I certainly wouldn't mind if these hives disappeared once and for all.

Breakout!

AHHH!!! I started breaking out into hives Monday after having Banana Macadamia Nut pancakes. I noticed a small red itchy patch on the right side of my abdomen and thought it was a mosquito bite, so I scratched it a little bit. Bad idea! A couple hours later, it had spread to my entire right side of my abdomen. It began to clear up afterI took a Benedryl, but eating clams for dinner made it worse. By the end of the night, my entire midsection was covered in large red patches.

Yesterday, the hives began to spread to my upper arms and thighs. I took Benedryl throughout the day and after consulting my doctor friends and the pharamacist at Walgreens, I applied a Benedryl gel over the hives. By nighttime, my legs and arms were covered with red patches. If not for the Benedryl, I probably would not have been able to sleep with my whole body itching. During one of Lydia's early morning feedings, I noticed that the hives were on my toes, fingers, and face and not so much around my midsection. It is so crazy how the hives gradually moved away from my abdominal area out to my limbs. I'm just glad it does not affect my breastmilk, though I do have some stored up for emergencies. I would post pictures, but I'll spare you the horror.

The hives should hopefully clear up by tomorrow. Now, the question is, what am I allergic to? I've never been allergic to anything before, oh, except for bad shrimp, but those hives were only on my face and would go away in just a few hours. This was a pretty bad break-out and I definitely want to know what to avoid. I'm thinking that it was the macadamia nuts that done me in, and the clams just made it worse. Maybe one week when I'm not going out at all, I'll experiment and find the culprit. Until then, I'm avoiding all nuts and shellfish, which I oh so love...boo hoo hoo.

Visitors

Friday night my sister-in-law Mai and her husband Be drove up from San Antonio to come see the baby. They are from Albany, NY and were in Texas for Be's work. We had a great time chatting and catching up and Lydia loved seeing her aunt and uncle.

Brother Be with Lydia...Mai with Lydia...Lydia is thinking "hey, you look familiar" :P

All in a day's work

I think we've basically got a routine (but far from a schedule) down now with the baby that kinda seems to work. Basically, we put her down to sleep for the night around 10-11 PM. (Some people would disagree and have the baby sleep earlier, but Trung and I are late sleepers...to each his own). Lydia wakes up a couple times throughout the night, about 3-4 hours between each feeding and I, of course, being the food source, get up to nurse her. If she wakes up within an hour of a feeding, I usually go find out what she needs, unless Trung is awake, then sometimes he goes. Then if Lydia wakes up and is not hungry after Trung starts working for the day, he takes her and puts her in the swing in front of his desk, which usually puts her to sleep.
During the day, she takes a couple naps for a couple hours and "plays" during the in-between times. Then during the evening time, I feed her every hour from 7-9 to stuff her so that she sleeps longer through the night. Every other night, we give her a bath, which is followed by her daily final feeding for the night.

Here's a daddy moment during an in-between time...
This is what we call the "Praise the Lord" pose; Grandpa Lee would like that. Every time we undress Lydia to take a bath, she spreads her arms straight out. I caught her a few seconds too late, but here's a pic to kind of give you an idea...I'll try to snap the picture faster next time.Um, I just thought this was cute. :)

Six weeks and counting

Today I went in for my six weeks appointment, basically a check-up to see how I healed up after the delivery. I am good to go, but don't tell Trung that, cause then we might end up with another baby in nine months. hee hee, j/k, I ain't no Britney Spears. Nah, we have discussed it...we want the kids to be about two years apart, so we're thinking that we'll have baby number two by mid-2008, but that's thinking ahead. Here's what we've got now:

Mommy was having a bit of fun in this picture.

This is what I like to call her Rod Stewart hairdo because the hair near the back of her head just recently started standing straight up. Well, what do you think? :P

Okay, so Sing and Maggie went to New York City for a break (Maggie is from Queens) , so we've been cat-sitting Fuzzy for a few days. The cats, overall, get along alright, but they definitely have their moments. Here's one of their nicer moments...